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"Believing Christians should look upon themselves as such a creative minority and ... espouse once again the best of its heritage, thereby being at the service of humankind at large." --Joseph Ratzinger

But (Cardinal) Cupich suffered a rare setback Tuesday morning when his fellow U.S. bishops rejected him for the post of chairman of the powerful pro-life activities committee, instead electing Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann.

The post is traditionally reserved for cardinals, meaning the conservative Naumann’s 96-82 vote victory over Cupich has widely been seen as a snub for the more progressive approach advocated by Cupich and the pope.

National Catholic Reporter columnist Michael Sean Winters — a liberal — went so far as to say the vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at its fall general assembly in Baltimore “amounted to the bishops giving the middle finger to Pope Francis.”

Naumann is a hard-liner on abortion who in 2008 made headlines for telling then-Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that she should not present herself for Holy Communion because of her support for abortion rights. In May, he ordered churches in his archdiocese to sever their ties with the Girl Scouts over what he said was that group’s ties to Planned Parenthood (the Girl Scouts denied the ties).

By contrast, Cupich espouses the “consistent ethic of solidarity” a development of the “consistent ethic of life” approach first championed in the U.S. by the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. Rather than single abortion out, the ideology opposes abortion as part of a framework that also includes staunch opposition to capital punishment, assisted suicide, euthanasia and unjust war, and stresses support for the life of the mother and child after birth.

Cupich told Chicago Inc. that onlookers “should not read too much into” the vote. “I’ve never given in to those categories, liberal and conservative,” he said. “I’m looking forward to working with my brother bishops to ensure that the sanctity of life is protected.”...

And he also rejected the idea that the vote represented a rejection of the pope’s agenda. America’s bishops are “united in our love for the Holy Father,” he said.